Thin from Within

This bottom line seems to emerge whenever diets are compared over longer periods: there are no magic bullets, and the best diet is the one you’ll stick with. What will you stick with, though? That question itself can be hard to answer.

Do you encourage or freak out if your normal weight teen wants to diet? When it comes to the thin-line of adolescent girls' "not quite" eating disorders, parents face new challenges—even when childhood eating issues have been minimal or non-existent before.

The things you say to a dieter can help or hurt. And, if you're the dieter, your responses can affect your ultimate success. It serves us all to find ways to communicate and support each other’s efforts in good self-care.

What Should Children Eat? Asks this year’s Food Issue of the New York Times Sunday magazine. The issue explores how to get kids to eat more adventurously, what kids around the world eat for breakfast (not always sweetened cereal....), and more. Continue the discussion here by pondering what encourages better choices, what instills too much fear?

How does weight loss surgery mesh--or not--with the goal of eating sanely? This question triggers strong reactions—it's an "easy way out” or a “band-aid”. Or, on the other side, it's an effortless solution. The idea of surgery as a drastic solution seesaws with the idea that it's a lazy solution. Neither idea is true, or helpful.

Being kinder to yourself leads helps habit change — including eating-habit change — for several reasons. Some overeaters fear that self-compassion will decrease self-control. Others find mental habits hard to break. It's possible to cultivate a more self-compassionate stance with these guidelines.

Can the media possibly bring us more on diet and weight? Yes, it seems so....though recent offerings seem especially helpful to those trying to eat more sanely, whether for weight loss or beating food addiction.

By now the scientific verdict is clear: some foods can spark cravings that rival those of any abused drug. These days, understanding and supports have solidified for the binger, though, and clearer paths to freedom can emerge. These paths often include six predictable points along the way.

The world presents many challenges to staying fit and eating well. But thankfully, an easy move here or there really does help—in other words we needn’t struggle and strain for every bit of progress. Sitting less, for example, forms a reasonable and reachable goal--and one that has clear payoffs for health and weight.

On the whole, we Americans are quick to jump on any new diet bandwagon. And, boy, do those bandwagons fly by. But research repeatedly shows few outcome differences between diet types. The important factor seems to be staying the course with less overeating, no matter how that’s achieved.

Thin From Within celebrates two years of posting this month. What strikes me as I reread the posts altogether, though, is how the stream of new discussions about weight continue to complicate how we understand both “inner conflict” and “stuckness”.

Now that science finds similar pathways lighting the brain whether it’s on sugar or cocaine, many overeaters feel validated. They’ve known this “hijacking” for years. Others, puzzled by all the fuss, wonder “Why not just have one?

We’re hit with more and more bitter news—our favorite sweets are toxic and addictive. As science explores obesity and metabolic syndrome, we’re getting the message that less is more when it comes to those sweets.

About Thin from Within

Thin From Within examines our inner obstacles to healthy eating and weight loss. There are plenty of outside obstacles, to be sure. Yet we've got diet books in the tens of thousands, and fewer people than ever succeeding with them. Many factors create this scenario. Nevertheless, we sometimes have the tools and knowledge we need, and yet..... Here is where emotions, relationships, and self-image can interfere, sometimes without our awareness. The blog highlights common and less common pitfalls, using case examples, media, and reader input.